Tax hike for Winchester schools urged by Board of Education

By
Mercy A. Quaye, Register Citizen

Thursday, August 29, 2013

WINSTED >> Winchester’s Board of Education has contacted the state in regards to its consistently stationary budget and warned the town that the continuation of flat-rate funding “virtually guarantees that the schools will not survive.”

Winchester Superintendent Thomas Danehy sent Town Manager Dale Martin a letter on Aug. 29 telling him that the board is “not willing” to give the town manager control over its expenses and appropriations of funds. In the letter, Danehy urges the town to raise taxes and increase the BOE’s budget.

Danehy said the BOE has begun discussions with the state over the “town’s lack of funding” of this year’s and last year’s minimum budget requirement.

“We have alerted them to the delayed and partial tuition payments to the high school,” he said. “Education is a constitutional right in Connecticut and the Town of Winchester cannot deny that right because it feels there are more pressing economic needs or because it feels taxes are too high.”

The town received $92,772.92 from the state as a result of a surplus in Municipal Revenue Sharing. According to Finance Director Robin Manuele, the money was deposited into the town’s account Wednesday. The town gave the entirety of that payment to the BOE to pay its vendors and creditors.

During Region 7’s BOE meeting on Wednesday, Superintendent Judith Palmer said she spoke with Martin who assured her “a check would be cut” for them on Thursday. She said the check would be for $58,000. According to Danehy, this meeting occurred without the Winchester BOE.

“The lateness of the payments [from Winchester] is a concern for us,” Palmer said during the meeting. “We’re hoping they will make us whole by tomorrow.”

Palmer said though she’d like to continue Region 7’s relationship with Winchester but “it has to pay its bills.”

“The problem isn’t that they don’t have a desire to pay us,” she said. “It’s just a matter of where we fall on the priority list.”

Danhey said Martin should not have met on the BOE’s behalf.

“It is for this reason,” he wrote, “your visit to Region 7 and Shared Services to discuss payment of the BOE bill without informing or involving school personnel was blatant interference with a BOE relationship with a creditor.”

Manuel said the town was only notified by the state earlier this week that it would receive the money. She said once the money was received, the town was “totaling allowing [the BOE] to spend that money.”

“We never know what we’re going to get or if we’re going to get anything,” Manuele said about the surplus money. “So when we met with Region 7 last week and Shared Services, we had recommended that all that money go to the Board of Education to pay their last year’s bills. Specifically, Region 7 Vo-Ag and then shared services. But this is additional money that we hadn’t planned on.”

Danehy voiced his concern about his lack of confidence in the town ability to repair its current financial situation.

“These vague assurances that much hard work is being done to straighten out the town’s finances will not satisfy our creditors,” he said, “nor will it keep the lights on in our schools.”

Martin did not immediately return multiple calls for comment.

Danehy said the BOE will pay the funds as they have been appropriated to Region 7 and the other creditors.

“We’re actually paying Region 7 $58,000 for Vo-Ag program student tuition from last year,” he said. “We are also paying $30,000 toward shared services bills from last year.”

This leaves Winchester’s Board with little less than $6,000 to use for its own purposes. The BOE ended last year with approximately $1.3 million in unpaid bills, even though it spent only the amount appropriated to it by the town plus grant money, according to Susan Hoffnagle, Chairman of the Board.

Danehy suggested in his letter that Martin show “true leadership,” and acknowledge the town’s needs.

“It is unrealistic to think the boilers in the school will not need to be replaced,” he said,“ and the list of the town and school crisis-level capital is a mile long.